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Culture without borders. / La culture sans frontières.

“Nanbanjin,” a tête-bêche graphic novel by Cyril Pedrosa and Taiyō Matsumoto

The graphic novel "Nanbanjin" is an original nearly 500-page work in a tête-bêche format, featuring two distinct readings: a Western version by Cyril Pedrosa and a manga version by Taiyō Matsumoto. The title refers to the Japanese nickname for the first Westerners in the 16th century.


Clara Fontaine
Clara Fontaine
September 21, 2026  ·  1 min read
B-Empire Magazine
Brief

“Nanbanjin” is a graphic novel published by Dupuis, the result of a collaboration between French illustrator Cyril Pedrosa and Japanese mangaka Taiyō Matsumoto.

The title, meaning “The Southern Barbarian,” was a pejorative nickname given by the Japanese to the first Westerners who arrived in the 16th century.

This unique book of nearly 500 pages is designed as a “tête-bêche” volume: it offers two different readings depending on the direction in which it is read. On one side, readers discover the Western version illustrated by Pedrosa; on the other, a manga reading by Matsumoto.

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